6 x 1, i believe, was one of the only courses i've had in college that i looked forward to every single time we had class. The first assignment was awesome! I fell in love with direct film manipulation immediately, and I strongly believe that every student in our major needs to have the opportunity to work with actual physical film, in such a creative way. On a side note: i think you should definitely keep the blogs, for me it has been thought provoking and a lot of fun. The fact that we don't get graded on grammar is a great way to motivate people to write. I think it would be cool if there was a beginner level workshop in after effects and or final cut, during the rapid editing project. Some of the examples Andre showd in glass this semester had some really cool filters/ effects, and I remember wishing I had the motivation to try to learn how to do these manipulations on my own. So i was thinking it would be cool to have around an hour or two session showing how to set up a composition, import footage, and apply a few simple effects. In Final Cut, for example, students could learn (or review) how to super impose, tint, split screen, etc. It was great working with both the super 8 and 16 mm cameras. Andre talked about the possibility of doing some "in camera editing" while working with the bolox, that method would be interesting to add to the workshop. The super 8 multi plane animation project was really great, wouldn't change anything about it. The 48 hour video race was also great! The only thing I could think of adding might be a short "field trip" to the library for a demonstration of the different (non obvious) ways in which one could use copy machines and scanners to create motion. The culture jam assignment was a good way to end the semester. Just when one's patience is almost non existent (close to finals), you get to spend time creating something, that for me felt anti-establishment; you get to take a vacation (from fact memorization, or even linear story line) and put your effort into creating whatever message you want, using whatever footage you desire. Along with the rest of the class, this project was almost therapeutic for me. I sincerely hope that film students at other schools are lucky enough to experience a course like this one.

Cucalorus

Cucalorus was really fantastic, I had the best time at this festival! This was the first time I got to experience anything like it, I went to a few shows last year but did not have a screening pass since I wasn’t in the major. I think I went to a total of fifteen shows and workshops over those six days. As a result I’m way behind in all four of my production classes and haven’t slept more than three hours a night for the last three days, but it was totally worth it. I couldn’t honestly pick a favorite film out of all of them, but Port City really stuck with me. The film was a sort of light hearted comedy, nothing too serious which was a nice break after seeing Mississippi Be Damned which was a terrific thought provoking film that left me in tears. What really stuck with me after seeing Port City was the general feeling of community at the center stage theatre. Nearly everybody I knew was at that screening, even people who generally don’t go to movies. It was great seeing something that was done right here at home, especially since it was good. Its just cool to recognize the locations throughout the movie, makes one appreciate living here even more than usual. The shots of the river really brought on sentimental feelings for me, which is odd, because I never thought I would come to call this place home until the festival this year. The show was sold out, the theatre was packed, and I just felt like I was at some large family reunion in which I didn’t know everyone but that didn’t matter all that much. I guess there was a communal energy in the room, which came forth when people laughed in unison. The Q and A was very short, I sort of wish it went on for longer but I understand how it can be a little awkward to stand on stage before hundreds of people. The director, producer, and actors all looked like they were ready to get out of the lime light, which is totally fine with me since I tend to think that a little humility couldn’t hurt anybody in this business. Like I said, the film itself was great, not too complicated, but sometimes that’s exactly what people need, something to entertain them, take them out of their world and make them happy. The story had a few interesting twists and the character development was amazing. The director said that he was trying to bring forth the story of the urban south, and I believe that he and his crew definitely accomplished this. One thing that amazed me was that he said they shot the film in some crazy short time, I think around 14 days. This is astounding to me, probably because I’ve never worked with a crew of more than five people, but the fact that they shot a feature length film in such a short period of time in incredible. They must have done a whole lot of detailed planning to pull this off. Anyways, this festival in general has inspired me to work as hard as I can on projects outside of school. The leader of the “Don’t quit your day job” workshop told us that as beggener film makers quantity should matter more than quality, meaning that we need to get out there and make as many films as we can, so that we can learn more and more and develop a personal style. I’m taking this message to heart, and hope to have a work play in the next festival, and if not that, at least get to the point where I’m submitting something.

48 hour video race

I had a blast with the 48 hour video race! Seriously, I live for this kind of stuff. I’ve always felt that my work comes out best when I’m under severe pressure. I remember when I picked up the mystery props I started to conceptualize what sort of film I wanted to make. Something trippy, I thought, experimental, with lots of movement. At that moment I decided that I would be doing this movie using my Kodak easy share still camera. Although this camera had a video setting I thought it would be more fun/challenging to do it all with still photos. At first I planned on mixing these photos in with some found footage, and maybe even animating some of the movement in aftereffects, but after I saw that we had shot more footage then was necessary to the one minute, I decided to let go of those ideas and instead spend my available time on perfecting the editing of the stuff I already had. I didn’t actually start working on this until Wednesday of that week. One of my best friends here was kind enough to help me, which was pretty fantastic, I don’t know anybody else who would sit around with me for five straight hours working on taking 800 + photographs of jars slowly moving around, lol. When I was shooting the stop motion, I basically went off from my experience with the multi plane assignment we did earlier this year. This is probably why I ended up taking more photographs then was actually necessary. I started off shooting each separate movement five different times, eventually that got extremely frustrating, since my camera sometimes takes up to twenty seconds to process one single photograph. Eventually I went to shoot each action twice. Ironically when I brought the images into final cut, it didn’t seem like those extra three shots made much of a difference. What I had forgotten about during the shoot, is that one can slow animation down to as low as ten frames per second, and still have it look good, which is what I ended up doing during editing. For some reason played at 24fps the footage looked pretty terrible, really jumpy, and didn’t give the viewer enough time to register what was going on on screen. So I slowed it down. One really cool thing that my friend suggested ended up working surprisingly well. We decided to use the song “One more time” by daft punk to go along with the stop motion. He thought it would be neat to play this song over and over again while we were working. I don’t know how it happened, but I think it influenced us subconsciously, because when I went to edit in the music, it almost seemed to fit perfectly. I actually think we’re going to be working with stop motion again next week, not for school. I’ve been a giant fan of Tool’s stop motion videos for years, although I must admit I don’t actually listen to them all that much unless I’m watching something they created, and I would love to be able to do something equally amazing at some point soon. The only regret I have about this assignment is that I wish I would have tried several other camera less filmmaking techniques, like using a scanner or copier, but I guess I could always try those things on my own time. I’m a firm believer that once an idea is formed and the method for producing that idea is set, the best work comes when people still to their original plan. I know this from experience, because I used to be that person that would completely change their project or paper half way through, and the results were always less than favorable.

3 D cameras

My experience with the 3D camera workshop was actually quite a surprise. For some reason I thought it would have been structured like the bolox Saturday shoot, where each group would get a few hours to plan and shoot their ideas. Granted I sat in the class room with the people I would be working with making masks, and we could have very well planned out the action we were about to film while we were sitting there, but alas that did not come to be. Its kind of neat to work under such pressure, we came up with an idea and blocked it in about a span of 15 minutes. It reminded me of the improve games I used to play in theatre when I was in high school. I didn’t get to see how to set up the camera’s properly, but I imagine it was not that complicated, just setting both to the same exact settings, like the same white balance, fstop and so on. The only thing I’m still slightly confused about is how to figure out the exact space between the camera’s. I know they’re supposed to be in the same position as the human eyes, but scaled up because the lenses are larger than eyeballs. So I guess with a little algebra one could figure out the space between the two. I combined the left and right tapes in after effects, and although I remember learning how to do this, I’m not sure I can do it again with out instructions. I love learning stuff in after effects, its like this mystery program with so many possibilities and each time I get to do something new I feel like I’ve won some small battle with the imac, lol. It was cool to learn an actual practical use of the slate, I’ve only previously used it to match up sound, poorly at that. What I learned from this, as with anything that involves computers, technology, and the UNCW editing lab, one must plan to work longer than expected. I didn’t mind that much, I feel like I might be able to have fun in a career that involves after effects, as long as that’s not all that I have to do.

media, rights?

I have always felt that art in general would work better if it was freely shared among the community. I don’t believe that people should be able to profit from others’ work without adding something original, but I do strongly feel that if something I create can bring inspiration to someone else to make something that is meaningful to them, they should go ahead and use my work. Such a creative process is exemplified in On the rights of man article. A single meaningful photograph inspired paintings, flyers, tee-shirts, etc. etc. The coolest part of that process was that because of this inspiration more and more people became aware of the problem at hand; knowledge was passed along. As far as credit goes I’m not sure how I feel about this issue. It would have been nice for Miss Garnett to mention the original photographer, I know if I had taken the picture, I would have wanted at least a thank you, but I don’t think that she should be sued or criticized because she recreated this photograph in an entirely different medium. As the Ecstasy article mentions, or at least this is what I got out of it, we are surrounded with all sorts of media all of the time, everything is mixed together, and some of the best works of literature, music, and art, have come into being because of the same type of “plagiarism” Garnett was sued for. The tradition of borrowing/ building on other people’s works of art goes back as far as Shakespeare, and probably even further. In this day and age there are too many laws and regulations; ways for us to try and hurt each other when that time could be spend doing something much more productive. The stupid napster fiasco is a perfect example of this ridiculousness. Suing kids as young as twelve… give me a break, what is the purpose of this? Did Metallica really need those few thousands of dollars this lawsuit took away from hundreds of people who were probably not very well off to begin with. I understand that artists whose livelihood depends on the sales of their works being upset about it being shared freely, but I also think that this free share of media can bring about more fans and followers who will eventually contribute to the artists’ success by going to see them perform, or buying their merchandise, or even passing their work along to others who will do the same. Many underground musicians post their work freely online for people to use and share with one another, perhaps because they realize this. The business of art has been spoiled by having so many branches of people who make money off the artist legally, i.e. record companies, producers, advertisers, and the list goes on and on, but instead of cutting out these middle men who at times serve very little purpose, the lawyers are going after those who want to enjoy the art just for its own sake. Maybe I don’t want to go buy a CD in a record store, if I’m aware that the original creators of this music wont’ see more then maybe a penny of every ten dollars in sales! This is why I personally don’t’ spend money on CDs unless I’m buying them from the musicians themselves. I support the artistic community as much as I can, but I refuse to buy into the corporate portion of this business; hope that’s something I keep along my way through my chosen profession.

Yes Men

I truly enjoyed watching Yes Men in class last week. I had no idea that anyone could carry out such an elaborate impersonation of cooperate representatives without going to jail. The point of the film that really stuck with me was that the other people at the various conventions they went to, not only didn’t kick them out, but reacted as if the information they were presenting was totally acceptable. If the top employees of one of the largest global corporations in existence can accept the concept of a phallus shaped observation monitor that sends out electrical impulses to various workers, the problems this world has to deal with are much worse then I had previously imagined. At least the Australian students in the film reacted with anger and frustration to the group’s presentation. If they hadn’t I would have walked out of that film severely depressed. I was also impressed with how much preparation and work the ‘yes men’ did in order to accomplish their stunts, and it was also nice to see them get financial sponsorship. The Yes Men have taken the concept of the culture jam and perpetuated it into live action/ the real world. As opposed to taking things out of context and creating a new meaning, they dive into the thing itself and show how ridiculous the concepts that powerful people are willing to put up with. How conformity of their cooperate world has taken away every last bit of free thought away…The people they interact with at the conference do not actually matter to them, it’s the stories in the papers, the publicity, the film that get their message out to the general public. The conference attendees are just puppets that dance along to their plan. As far as this assignment I’m not quite sure where to begin, but I usually don’t get struck with an idea for a project until the due date is fast approaching, so I’m not too worried about. I did create a culture jam for Shannon’s intro to editing class, and it came out pretty good in my opinion. I remember it took me like twelve straight hours of editing to complete that assignment, so I will try to plan better for this one. I appreciate the fact that the yes men are actually making a difference with their work and I am inspired to once again create something that I feel strongly about, I’m just not quite sure what at the moment.

long take

I loved working on the long take last weekend, even though it was on a saturday. I got to operate the camera which was very exciting for me because i've never worked with a 16 mm camera before. I was pretty nervous about getting all of the setting correctly, but after carefully following instructions i think i got a hold of it. I still treat film as such a delicate substance, when in actuality its not as fragile as i like to think that it is. After loading the camera we spend the majority of our allowed time planning out the long take. Luckily we had already come up with a concept we were going to shoot the previous class, so all we had to do was block our actors and get the timing right. We used a wheelchair dolly to track our long take. Getting accustomed to sitting in it was a little bit of a challenge. I had some trouble finding a position that was comfortable, and practical. I had to sit in such a way where i could steady the camera from bouncing around, as well as be able to look through the view finder. Eventually i sat across the chair with my legs hanging from one side and held the camera steady against my knee. The dolly worked well, although there were problems with the uneven sidewalk and cracks. It was hard to keep the camera steady but I did the best I could. We blocked and rehearsed the shot five or six different times, with the actors doing their blocking and me following them along pretending to shoot. The timing worked out pretty well, although we didn't get the final shot in the end because we ran out of tape. I believe i might have set the fps a little too high on the camera, I will have to make sure to double and triple check this the next time i work on a similar project. The sun was on our side it seems, when we were ready to shoot the real thing the clouds gave way to a perfect window of opportunity. I had a good time watching the film being developed, someday i hope to be able to developed some of my personal work in this way, at least now i'll some idea of what to do if this happens. When i saw the developed film i was a little concerned because so much of it was dark, but then realized that it was because of the brick columns we used in our shot which stretched across the entire minute of footage. It actually came out looking great, and I can't wait to start working on the sound editing for this assignment. To be honest I was a little surprised that it came out looking that good, but i have low confidence in my abilities to operate camera, which is something i need to overcome ASAP because I hope to operate equipment and cameras as a profession some day, and confidence is something I will need to project to potential employers. I enjoyed looking at the negative image of our long take, and sort of wish we could leave it looking this way, but it’ll probably look even better after me and my partner take it into final cut. I’m not quite sure yet of what sort of sound track I want to add to this footage, but I’m sure we will come up with something great. So far it is reminiscent of some sort of skate board commercial, and I wish to steer the project away from that direction. Anyways, I had a great time working on this assignment, and hope to continue such work on my own in the future.

48 hours...

I'm intrigued by the idea of working with a mystery prop to create a short film. I am, however, intimidated by the restriction of not being able to use any sort of video camera or even the video mode on a digital still camera. Technology and me are at constant odds, and always have been. I've never worked with a scanner or copier except in the usual ways, and although I’m interested to try to use these machines as film making tools, I’m scared that some simple technical problems will come up that will drive me insane. Problems such as converting the files to jpgs or importing them into final cut or after effects, or even exporting to quicktime. I guess it will be a learning experience but I would also like my final product to be something I'm proud to have my name on, and I'm scared this might not be the case. Its a good idea to use a cell phone camera, but I have no clue on how to get such videos onto a computer to begin with. While writing this I'm realizing that maybe I need to go back to some older methods of image capture. Even something as simple as animating jpgs can turn out really well if I spent enough time on it, but I want to include something more original. Taking pictures of a flip book is an interesting thought as well. I’ve also considered making something like the phenakistoscope, but I don’t know if I will be able to do this. Hand drawing intricate animated scenes will be time consuming but it seems like the rest of it wouldn’t be that hard; making a spinning disk with slits in it. I would have to bring a mirror to class for people to be able to watch this, and would have to include some other type of film to make the whole minute. Maybe I could have different stations set up to where the viewer could watch the phenakistoscope for like twenty seconds and then move to watch the rest of the film somewhere else. Or maybe I could just take still images projected on the mirror, but that wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. The time constriction on this project I think will actually be helpful to me, because I usually only work well under pressure. The mystery prop will have a lot to do with helping me determine how to attack this project. For example, if it’s a sound clip I might have some issues including it with anything that’s hand drawn, but then again I’m sure this is somehow possible. Either way I’m happy that I get to work in this way, I just hope that I can come up with something that looks great and is created in a unique way.

Scratch Film Junkies, 2

Watching the second film scratch junkies movie was a little different from my initial experience. I knew that this sort of work takes time, but I didn't realize how much effort goes into creating something that lasts for such a short period of time. I created 30 seconds of film and it took me hours and hours of time to do so. Because of this i felt that I could appreciate St. Lewis more than the fist film we watched by this group. Their techniques in film manipulation are very well developed. I only hope I'll be able to get that good over time. The first thing I noticed while watching the short film was a sort of panning effects. It looked like the camera was panning over a single frame. I'm intrigued by how this was done. Was this look created by very careful frame by frame animation, or another technique that I'm not familiar with? Another similar type of effect i noticed was when the images on screen were moving in and out of frame. That i imagine, had to be done by animating each frame, and now that i've had the experience of doing this myself, I can understand exactly how much work was done to create this. I also saw a few examples of multilayered manipulation, where several film strips were placed on top of each other, or at least thats my guess on how it was done. It looked like they took stock black and white footage, and then layered bleached exposed film stock on top of it. I would like to try this at some point, I guess all one would have to do is make the two separate strips and layer them, maybe adding some lite adhesive to make them stay together. As with the first film i saw by this group, I was fascinated with the way they managed to sync their images to music. Towards the end, the music and intensity of the images increased together. I really want to learn how to do this, its probably just simple math, especially if you could edit the sound track into the film with non linear editing technology, as opposed to creating it directly on the film strip (which i have no clue how to do). In retrospect I think the biggest problem I had with the film manipulation project was comprehending just how quickly the film would play. I took too much time painting/ scratching each frame with as much variety as possible and didn’t think of the larger picture as much as I will the next time I make something like this. There were a few animations, for example, that I wish I would have continued for a longer time then I did in the project. They were really pretty but lasted only ten frames at the most, I feel they would have had a greater effect if they were longer. I also wished I had tried to layer my work a little more. I did end up painting the exposed film we did in class, and it turned out very well. I think it would have been cool to go over some of the stuff I painted and scratch in some out lines. Also, I had made some rips in my magazine transfer stuff that I wanted to later outline with paint or a sharpie, but unfortunately forgot to do. Alas, this was not my only opportunity to make something like this, so I will probably refer back to these blogs the next time I’m working with 16mm.

Sound

I first would like to point out that this article was difficult to read and stay focused on. Although the topic was interesting, the language was jack full of complicated vocabulary that kept taking me out of the piece because I had to keep rereading sentences to try and figure out exactly what the writer was talking about. That aside I agree with most of the arguments in this paper. Sound, to me, is what creates the magic of the film world. In the silent era, I feel that movies were somewhat of a spectacle. They were fun to watch, especially since this technology was unprecedented, but I do not believe these films had the ability to take viewers away into another world as do films that are created with sound. I did learn something from reading this, I was not aware that sound was the reason that a standard projection rate came into existence. One thing he talked about that I never thought of before was the example of the news reporter and the air show. What the reporter said, here we have three small planes, was what the viewers, undoubtedly focused their attention on. This concept could be useful for me if I ever make anything film with narration. This blatant technique of focusing the audience’s attention on what ever it is that you want them to see would be great to use along side shots that are full of many visually stimulating images. The film Playtime by Jack Tati comes to my mind here. The news reporter example also made me think of how easily the opinions and attention of the general public are swayed just by the things modern news reporters speak about everyday. The writer’s concept of empathetic vs. anempathetic music is something I feel as if I had always been aware of, but never thought about specifically. We are all used to the whirlwind of happy instruments that accompany, for example, a reunion scene is many films. Most of the time this music is nondiegetic, and although it does greatly aid the mood of such an even, for me, it usually takes away from the realness of the story. Realness is not always a goal in a film, but I think that when it is anempathetic music works much better. Like the writer points out, it creates a sort of blank slate for the action to occur. This in turn, makes the viewer more involved with the film itself, because rather then being cued on what he or she is supposed to feel, they have to figure it out for themselves, reasoning from the action taking place. Then again I’m really into films that inspire active viewing. For this purpose anempathetic music works really well, but then again, if the film maker is trying to make something soley for entertainment this might not work as well. I was a little confused about what the article said about sound and temporalization of images. I understand how the randomness of sound, as well as the tempo of the moving images can animate or create a sort of pace of a film, but I’m not sure that the conditions written here are always true. A low irritating hum, in my opinion, can create just as much tension in a scene as a bunch of crazy high pitched string instruments. The examples of the sounds in various horror movies creating a vivid picture without actually showing the violence is actually one of my favorite film technique. For this reason I usually prefer older horror films to the new gory ones that have come out over the last five years. I strongly believe a viewers imagination, prompted by extreme sounds and some sort of storyline, is much more vivid then any blood and gore filmmakers can create on screen. I’m not saying cut all of the stuff out of every film, but I think it would be great if sometimes modern horror films would leave some of this stuff to our imaginations.

Experimental vs. Orthodox

I took a history of animation course last semester and this reading reminded me of a lot of the concepts we had studied in that class. It seems to me that realistic representations of human like characters was a logical starting point for the art of animation to develop from. Just like with most other visual art forms, animators started out creating the familiar. Not till awhile later do we see abstract experimental creations. The same was true of filmmaking in the very beginning. Until the works of George Melies, there were not any major filmmakers who attempted to do anything more than film the action in front of them. Although innovative, Meliese chose to follow a linear story line. Not until many years later did experimental film make its first début, but as with filmmaking, painting, and sculpture, animators eventually did take the same leap into the abstract. The diagram in the Wells article makes it seem as though experimental animators chose to go against the orthodox methods of animation in any way they could find how. Although this is a valid point, I do not personally think that these decisions were consciously made. I feel as if these artists chose to represent their thoughts and ideas in a different way from the norm, and then later scholars and writers decided to classify these ways as the opposite of the conventional. Some of these differences can be accounted for just by taking a look at the mode of production each type of animation was created in. Your typical cell animations have many people working on them from start to finish. It is difficult for a presence of any one particular artist to remain in a work touched by so many. It is also difficult to imagine collaborating such a large group of people to work on any abstract, but unified concept. I think with this mode of production, simple linear story lines and gags were the only way to go.
Experimental animators usually have a small budget to work with and only a few people who are involved in the artistic process. Because of this they have to come up with new, cost effective ways to accomplish their goals. The existence of the artist is strongly present in their work for both of these reasons. One’s artistic style is much more prevalent in a work they did by themselves then in a work they did with a hundred others. I do believe that experimental animation is more thought provoking and draws attention to the tools used to create it, as is true for experimental film as well. This type of work is tailored to a different audience then conventional cartoons, or sometimes not tailored to any audience at all. Cartoons (in the Disney, Warner Bros sense) are created for the purpose of entertainment and to make money. Experimental animations are created, among other things, for the love the medium and the visually stimulating. Whos to say a red dot traveling across a screen isn’t a character in itself? I’m very excited that I get to work with animation in this environment. We get to play around with the medium and bring out aspects that interest us, not for the goal of revenue or even being liked, but for the experience in itself. That I believe is the major difference between the two types of animations discussed in this article. Orthodox animation, to me, seems more like a job, while experimental animation is pretty much whatever you want it to be.

Camerless Filmmaking

Ever since I saw Andre's presentation about 6 x 1 in my movie makers and scholars class I've been extremely excited about taking this course. I've always wanted to work directly with film and have been interested in alternative ways of creating movies. My experience with cameraless filmmaking so far has been really great. i was surprised just how tiny the actual 16 mm film strip is when i first laid hands on it. It is much harder to work with such a small amount of space creating the images i see in my mind then i had previously imagined. But its a challenge that had inspired me to think about this art in new ways. There are so many possibilities to manipulate film and i'm psyched to try as many out as i can. I want to see what happens when i apply fire directly to the film strip, as well as different types of inks and paints, i've also thought about soaking the film in acidic or basic solutions and applying other chemicals/ dyes to it. I liked doing this stuff so much that i'm going to invest in my own 16mm projector in the next few months so i can continue this work on my own. Learning about magazine transfers was really great and a technique that I had never previously thought of doing. Now its something that ill be able to include in my work as long as i want. I haven’t had the chance to work with the animation part of the elements assignment yet, but am looking forward to doing that as well. Puncturing and scratching the film was a lot of fun too. Even with this technique alone there are so many more possibilities to play with. I have yet to use a razor or needle to try and make very detailed tiny images, but plan to attempt this when I get together with my partner this weekend. Exposing the film in the dark room was also a great experience that played against my preconceived notions. I brought in many various objects to lie on the unexposed film, and had a pretty clear concept of what the end result would look like. Once again I was greatly surprised with what actually happened. For some reason I thought that semi opaque objects like glass beads would end up creating many sharply contrasting shades on the film after it was developed. This was not the case; however, it still looked fantastic. It’s cool to actually get to do these things with my own hands, versus reading about them in text books; now I will know what to expect the next time I attempt to work with unexposed film. I interested to learn how to manipulate sounds tracks with using a camera or post production programs. I’m not sure that this is something we will address in class or something I will need to experiment with on my own, but I’m excited to do it either way. Music is such a great part of my life and I would love to include it in these and future projects. Overall so far, film manipulation has been a blast! I have learned things that I would have never thought of on my own, and I believe I’ve discovered a new long term passion.

synesthesia

Artwork that is representative of the experiences of people with various types of synesthesia has existed for many centuries. The concepts of seeing music and hearing sounds was studied by Greek philosophers back before anyone had any notions of specific brain functions. Even before this phenomenon was studied or thought of as a concept, painters and musicians put forth an effort to cross the visual and auditory sensations. Kandinsky, among many others, painted music and many of "colored organs" were created to show this same relationship. The film medium is the next logical step. Direct film manipulation is a great way for people to be able to show music as sound, or numbers with personality, because there are so many different ways to manipulate the medium and there are no rules to what one can create. I wonder if synesthesia had any relation to some of the films i have seen in the past. I remember seeing numbers in many experimental films, and they are always colored. If a film maker is a grapheme - color synesthete they might show the letter four colored in red, or they might color it something else to trick people. For me direct film manipulation would be a really neat way to represent music visually. I would work on doing this if i knew how to sync a sound track to the actual film strip to where I was able to hear the music while I was making the movie and know which frame was associated with each measure. Transforming, moving, color changing shapes could be created to show the different feelings certain melodies and instruments inspire. One could also represent the rhythms in music through the movement of such shapes. Another way to think about it is like the photographer in the arts in synesthesia article who takes photographs when she has synesthetic experiences. Just sort go with your guts, do art for the sake of it without putting much conscious thought into it and see what the end result is. I think the next time I’m working on such a project I will listen to music and randomly paint and or scratch to film without any sort of plan. An interesting experiment would be to put multiple people in a room with the same set of materials to manipulate a film strip, play music, and see if there are any common trends in what they come up with. Come to think of it, most experimental films I have seen have made me think of the artists’ efforts to visually show music, at least the ones involving direct film manipulation and animations. Its interesting how when I watch a silent work I usually form my own rhythm and or music in my head to accompany what I’m seeing on the screen. I’m also interested in reading Isaac Newton’s study on the relation of sounds and colors, to see if I could make a film based on his theory to see if it’s something that I will like to watch and what effect it would have on other viewers. In the articles it said that maybe one in twenty something people has some sort of synesthesia, perhaps there are many individuals out there that are unaware that their perceptions are any different from that of most others. Maybe the people sitting with me in class watching experimental films are having totally different experiences from me, like when we watched that silent film on the second day of class and people said they were imagining different instruments that should be playing.

scratch film junkies

While watching the short films created by the Scratch Film Junkies I was struck by with a few different thoughts and ideas. The first thing that immediately drew my attention was their use of sound. For the first few seconds of the movie the screen remains black, that along with the weird music created mystery and made me want to know what was about to happen next. I also noticed that the types of music and sound changed with the images on screen, in my mind creating different "acts" or "scenes." This is an interesting parallel between conventional narrative or documentary movies. Although this work was much more abstract then those types of films, there was still a form or organization and division. During the film there was an interesting mix between geometric images and abstract ones. The shapes on the screen were sometimes recognizable, such as polygons and circles, and other times they were weird floating shapes that would at time only appear for a few seconds at a time. A few technical questions also came to mind. I was wondering if some of the multilayer sequences were done during production or later through editing. Perhaps they used multiple panes of glass to have several things going on in the mid, back, and foreground, or maybe they superimposed the images in post production. Throughout the work, the images flashed in sync with the music and made me wonder; did they choose the music first and then created the images to go along with it, or vice versa? Or maybe they did the animations, and then created the music to match them? It seemed as if they were trying to visually represent the music and sounds that were playing through the animations, like every note and beat was somehow accompanied by an image or series of images. The animations flowed with the music, almost bringing it alive on the screen. Overall the work was extremely visually stimulating! It took me away from the usual visual experience of regular movies because there was no plot to follow or characters to figure out. This allowed me to let my mind wonder and enjoy the art placed in front of me. This in turn made me wonder about how this art was created, which drew attention to the medium of film in itself. Most films and television shows attempt to recreate reality and take the viewer away into a different world. This film, on the other hand, did not attempt to make what was on screen seem realistic, and thus was more engaging to me, because it made think about the technical aspects of their work. It also reminded me of a structured dream. Since there were no narrative constraints it almost seemed as what one might experience if they let their mind wonder with no restrictions, although there was obviously some structure to the movie. Another thing I wondered about was the total cost of this production. The materials they used seemed to be easily accessible and not very expensive. I’m interested in creating experimental films, but I do not yet have to know how on how to go about this. Sometimes it seemed like the film was being shown in slow motion, I also wanted to know if they somehow accomplished this effect during the actual production or through editing.